The invention relates to an apparatus and method for reusing mailing envelopes and boxes and, more particularly, provides a mailer that can be opened, resealed, and readdressed multiple times.
Reuseable mailing envelopes are generally used when a sender desires or anticipates a recipient to respond or take action by mail. To facilitate a recipient""s response, it is typically desirable for the sender to have the recipient assert minimal effort. The rationale is that the less effort a recipient needs to exert, the more probable he will respond quickly. Hence, a reuseable mailer may be preferably sent to a recipient who in turn can reuse the mailer, which may be preaddressed by the sender, to respond. In this fashion, everything the recipient needs to respond is right in front of him and he need not get an envelope of his own or write an address on it. When everything is conveniently provided to the recipient, it generally encourages a recipient to respond more readily than if the recipient had to fetch and address the envelope himself.
A further benefit of reusable mailers, such as envelopes, is to reduce the sender""s expenses. Without a reusable envelope, the sender would need to enclose a second envelope within the first envelope in order to provide the recipient with the items he needs to respond. The expense of a second envelope would be undesirable to the sender.
In addition to reducing a sender""s expenses, reusable mailers may expedite the mailing process because the recipient does not need to locate and address a separate mailer. Furthermore, reusable mailers may already designate a carrier and mode of transportation, such as first class or overnight. The recipient does not need to take the time to select a cost effective carrier or mode of transportation, which may be cheaper and slower than the ones designated on the reusable mailers. Moreover, return mailers may promote sales for a sender since a recipient may be more inclined to send payment or open accounts in a preaddressed reusable mailer as opposed to locating, addressing, and mailing a mailer at the recipient""s expense.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,213,258 to Kim, U.S. Pat. No. 5,400,957 to Stude, U.S. Pat. No. 5,950,916 to Santangelo, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,503,328 to Roccaforte disclose a flap to seal the envelope having a plurality of separable strips, each capable of sealing the mailer. The end most strip would be used first to seal the envelope and the recipient would thereafter separate the strip to open the envelope and reseal it using the next end most strip. The ""916 patent to Santangelo further discloses that each separable strip can contain sender and recipient information so that a history of the mailings can be tracked. The ""258 patent to Kim discloses an area for writing a recipient""s address that can be removed and discarded so that, upon reusing the envelope, the recipient can write on the envelope below. However, the envelope in the ""258 patent to Kim can be reused only twice.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,899,127 to Melander discloses a reuseable envelope where the recipient""s address is printed on the outside of a transparent sleeve and the sender""s address is printed directly on the envelope, beneath the transparent sleeve, with the word xe2x80x9ctoxe2x80x9d above it. A card is placed into a transparent sleeve and the card has the sender""s address on it with the word xe2x80x9cfromxe2x80x9d above it. The card further has the word xe2x80x9ctoxe2x80x9d printed thereon in a location, when placed in the sleeve, above the recipient""s address on the front of the sleeve. The recipient can then reuse the envelope by discarding the card, revealing information directly on the envelope visible through the sleeve, and now show the recipient as the sender and vice versa. Also disclosed is flipping the card over to reveal information on the other side, such as address information. Although this invention can be reused numerous times, the original recipient""s address will permanently remain on the front of the transparent sleeve, thereby limiting the use of the reusable mailer. Further, the original recipient""s address remains in the same location and this may be confusing to the delivery personnel because the address is not in the upper left hand corner, the typical location for a senders address.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,380,648 to Lyra discloses an envelope with windows in the areas for both the sender""s and recipient""s addresses whereby a card having removable labels can be inserted into the envelope. The labels would have information printed thereon and the recipient can repeatedly adjust the labels so that the desired information can be shown through the windows. The envelope has two flaps that permanently close the envelope. Although the labels can be reused many times, the envelope can be resealed only twice.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,809,906 to Lombardo discloses an envelope with a removable window that has information on the outside of it. The window can thereafter be removed, leaving a hole in the envelope, to show a paper inside having other information on it.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,826,787 to Turner discloses a pair of foldable flaps, one larger than the other, where the larger flap is used to fold over the smaller flap and seal the envelope. The recipient then tears open the larger flap to reveal the smaller flap, which is used to reseal the envelope. Also disclosed is a single flap with a perforation across the adhesive used to seal the envelope. The sender would use only the lower portion of the adhesive below the perforation. The recipient would tear the flap along the perforation to open the envelope and reseal it by using the upper portion of the adhesive. The main disadvantage is that the envelope can be reused only twice.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,927,595 to Mellon and U.S. Pat. No. 5,025,980 to Blackman disclose an envelope that has inner and outer flaps, each with an adhesive for sealing the envelope and a tear strip for opening the flap. The inner flap is folded inside the envelope while the outer flap seals it. Once the recipient uses the tear strip to open the envelope, the inner flap can then be accessed and used to reseal the envelope.
A general disadvantage of the mailers disclosed in the above references is that the reusable envelopes may be reused, in most cases, only twice and if they are able to be reused a multitude of times, the envelopes have limited uses for there is information permanently printed on the envelopes. Another disadvantage of the mailers disclosed in the above references is that they generally relate only to envelopes and not other mailers, such as boxes or containers. Still another disadvantage is that the above mailers do not permit electronic tracking so that one can determine whether or not a mailer is being sent from a sender to a recipient or a recipient to a sender or other party.
What is desired, therefore, is to provide a reusable mailer that can be repeatedly used without limiting the use of the mailer due to information permanently printed on it or on a card that is to be inserted into the mailer. What is also desired is a reusable mailer that is not limited to envelopes but includes boxes and other mailing containers that can be advantageously reused. What is further desired is a mailer that, upon reuse, has information in the proper location clearly identifying the sender and recipient. What is still further desired is an electronically trackable mailer that can be tracked whether it is being mailed to or from a recipient.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a repeatedly reusable mailer.
Another object of the invention to provide a reusable mailer having insertable, clear sleeves for permitting mailing indicia to be seen.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a reusable mailer in the form of a box or container for mailing parcels.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a system that electronically tracks the reusable mailer whether the mailer is going to or from a recipient.
These and other objects of the invention are achieved by providing a return mailer having a front panel, back panel, and a flap to close the mailer having a plurality of separable panels. The return mailer may also have two transparent sleeves, one on top of the other, on the outside of the front panel so that a card having mailing indicia printed thereon may be inserted between the transparent sleeves. Each transparent sleeve may further have masking thereon so that, upon insertion between the sleeves, a portion of the card""s indicia is masked. Further, the sleeves may have different maskings, whereby different portions of the card may be masked depending upon which sleeve the card is inserted. In addition, multiple cards having varying indicia may be used and interchanged to facilitate mailing the mailer to and from a recipient.
The masking on each sleeve is also removable in order to provide unobstructed viewing of the indicia printed on the cards and, if varying portions of the cards are to be masked, may further be adjustable. In addition, the masking may also have indicia printed thereon in order to impart general information, such as labeling a sender and recipient.
The return mailer is not limited to being in the form of an envelope but may desirably be a box or container so that large parcels may be shipped according to the invention.
In order to facilitate insertion of the card, the transparent sleeves may permit the card to be inserted from a side or top or both. Furthermore, the transparent sleeves may have an opening in the middle, as opposed to the ends, of the sleeves in order to more securely hold the card in the sleeves.
In an alternative embodiment, a transparent sleeve may be placed on each the front and back panel to further facilitate a return mailing from a recipient, whereby the recipient need only insert a card in one sleeve in addition to or instead of removing the card inserted by the sender in the other sleeve. Hence, a recipient may not need to adjust or remove masking or determine the proper sleeve to insert the card.
In another embodiment, the card having mailing indicia printed thereon may further have billing information on it so that a payor and method of payment can be identified. Also, multiple cards may be used where one card contains mailing indicia and another contains billing information. This may be desirable where one sleeve has likewise been designated to contain mailing indicia and the other sleeve to contain billing information.
In yet another embodiment, the cards may have electronically scannable identifying information printed thereon so that, upon being scanned, one can determine who the sender or recipient is and who is paying for postage and in what manner. Other information may also be provided, such as the destination address and whether or not a return mailing has been authorized. The scannable identifying information may comprise a bar code or other known scannable information and may be scanned by known scanning devices.
The invention and its particular features and advantages will become more apparent from the following detailed description considered with reference to the accompanying drawings.